Ruchi Agrawal, Highly Commended, A Rising Star

Ruchi Agrawal firmly lives up to the saying that there is no substitute for hard work. Throughout her education and career, Ruchi has constantly sought to improve, take on new challenges and push the boundaries.

Photo of James Hayward and Ruchi Agrawal, Sandoz Private Limited.

Ruchi Agrawal

Manager Treasury, Finance

Ruchi Agrawal is Manager, Treasury at Sandoz Private Limited. Prior to joining the Novartis Group in 2012 she was part of the treasury function at the Vedanta Group. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary and graduated from SRCC, Delhi University with a distinction. She is a strong believer that “academics never end hence the struggle for excellence will always continue”.

A simple motto guides Ruchi’s actions in life: ‘if you rest you rust’. Indeed, for Ruchi there is no such thing as the top of the mountain; there is always another summit to scale. This insatiable desire to constantly improve has seen Ruchi already achieve some notable milestones in her career and has set her up to become a future treasury leader.

Ruchi has always been a high achiever. In higher secondary school she was at the top of her class and secured a place at one of India’s top universities, achieving a distinction in her degree. Straight after completing her Chartered Accountancy, Ruchi made the move into treasury after chancing her luck at one of India’s biggest job fairs. Competing with 200 other CAs, Ruchi made an impression on the hiring team at Vedanta and was offered a place at one of its group companies, Sterlite Industries, taking charge of the back office forex and commodity desk in treasury.

Ruchi admits that initially the move into treasury was hard because of a long commute and the need to learn a host of new skills on the job. However, through hard work and perseverance, Ruchi prevailed and was given the chance to lead the front office commodity hedging desk before being asked to handle trade finance activity for the Group.

New beginnings

In 2011 Ruchi’s life changed when she decided to take on a different challenge with a new company, Sandoz, a pharmaceutical giant. Initially, Ruchi managed the company’s FX portfolio and hedging activities, fund management and borrowing and cash flow management. Her first major achievement here came when she streamlined the cash flow projection process and ensured that the projections were more accurate, adding value to the business.

Elsewhere, Ruchi also provided value to the company through working on projects such as Sandoz’s Foreign Inwards Remittance Certificate Warehousing. This project digitised the process of submitting these remittances – crucial for companies that export – to the central bank. It was a project that saw her having to work with multiple stakeholders, understand complex regulatory requirements and understand new technology.

Ruchi is also interested in understanding the end-to-end flows within the business. She is often found visiting and speaking with sales teams on the ground in Sandoz’s different markets. This helps her understand how the company is operating and what treasury can do to help add value and boost revenues.

Continued learning

Since beginning her professional career, Ruchi has been keen to continue learning and is a qualified Chartered Accountant and also a qualified Company Secretary – the latter qualification she achieved whilst studying during pregnancy. These qualifications have given Ruchi a well-rounded view of finance, beyond the confines of treasury.

“Making my belief come true, that there are powers and spirits who constantly monitor what we do and a great recognition of this nature, makes my resolve grow stronger to create newer benchmarks of excellence… highly gratifying to be bestowed with this honour.”

– Ruchi Agrawal, Manager Treasury, Finance, Sandoz Private Limited

Her Company Secretary qualification has proved especially useful, since Ruchi is often required to decode complex legal and regulatory requirements that Sandoz must comply with, most notably the Companies Act 2013. With all her capabilities, she also manages the role of Company Secretary for Sandoz Private Limited.

Courage over constraints

Ruchi is certainly a professional who does not believe in constraints, instead believing that with a little courage everything is possible. Her career has been defined by taking on new challenges and an unmatched desire to improve. We anticipate that this is just the beginning and that Ruchi will achieve her aim of reaching the top and act as an inspiration to other men and women around the world.